The current state of the mobile market, contrary to what some tech commenters might be opining, is anything but ponies and roses. It's a lot like coming home from a hard day of work and finding out that your toilet is leaking--leaking all over your floor, that is. You don't really have the tools to fix it, but you do have a healthy amount of duct tape sitting around.

AT&T's announcement that it's eliminating the unlimited data plans for iPhone and iPad owners is but the black, sticky tape covering up a greater disaster underneath. But that's not what the various Internet commenters would have you believe. To them, the charitable AT&T has graciously swooped down to lower everyone's monthly data fees since so very, very few people will ever push past its first-tier pricing scheme of $25 per month for two gigabytes of data.

This is not some charitable reduction that saves 98 percent of AT&T's user base an extra $5 a month. If you believe that, then by all means, let the carrier come marching right up to your front door with a new contract and a shiny golden ticket to Wonka's candy factory. Because that, sir or ma'am, is just the level of delusion we're talking about.

With the recent introduction of the PS3 Slim, Sony also introduced a new piece of tech within it – a 45nm cell processor.

The newer, slimmer version of Sony’s powerhouse will reportedly lose its Linux support and won’t come with any kind of backwards compatibility with PS2 games. However, it’ll come with a larger 120GB drive onboard, and the improved CPU. According to a video posted by Sony on their US website, the processor is based on IBM’s Power architecture, and was a joint venture between IBM, Sony and Toshiba. No word yet on what the GPU is, but we do know that the folks responsible for making it are Nvidia.

SanDisk on Tuesday announced plans to release a 16GB microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro (M2) mobile memory cards, which would qualify as the world's largest mobile phone removable memory card capacity. The timing couldn't be better either, as handsets continue to up the ante with high tech features like media playback, HD digital camera capabilities, GPS, gaming, and everything else manufacturers can stuff into a mobile phone.

"Handsets have become far more than just phones - they’ve become mobile jukeboxes, mobile offices, even mobile movie theaters," said Avi Greengart, Research Director for Mobile Devices at Current Analysis. "Flash memory cards have increased in storage capacity, but even an 8GB card may be too small for anyone with GPS map data, a few movies, a game or two, a presentation file and other applications."

Officially available at Best Buy Mobile stores in October and Verizon Wireless stores in November, SanDisk has set the MSRP for the 16GB microSDHC at $100, and $130 for the M2.

According to a previous report by The Wall Street Journal, Google's open-source Android platform likely won't see the light of day until 2009, but that may not be the case. A new rumor hitting the web claims that T-Mobile will debut the first Android phone for pre-sale as early as September 17th.

Blog site TmoNews, who claims to be privy to this information based on a "trusted source," also says the new phone (codenamed G1) will cost consumers $399 - ouch! But that's when it goes fully public. TmoNews says the G1 pre-sale will last for one week and be available only to T-Mobile customers, who will be able to pick up the phone for $250 below retail. Everyone else will have to wait until mid-October.

The site also claims the G1 will come in black, white, or brown and include a 3-inch wide touch screen, 3G support, and a slide-out Qwerty keypad. Anyone that plans on picking one up will need a Gmail account, or so the rumor goes.

Maybe you need to break off your long distance relationship but don't want the guilt that will come from a lengthy conversation. Or perhaps Aunt Gertrude is in bed by the time you remember it's her birthday. Or maybe you just lack the people skills to carry on a conversation. Whatever your reason may be, chances are there's been a time when you wanted to get a message to someone without actually talking to them. Timing your call so you know you'll get through to voicemail can be tricky, but thanks to a new beta service, you can take the guesswork out of it and leave a message whenever you want.

Aptly named Slydial, the free service lets you connect directly to someone's voicemail from any landline or mobile phone, and it works with "all major U.S. wireless providers." The recipient will show a missed call with your caller ID information, but they won't actually get a chance to answer the phone.

To use Slydial, just dial 267-SLYDIAL (267-759-3425), enter the recipient's phone number, and after sitting through a short in-call advertising speel (a paid premium service eliminates this annoyance), you'll be connected to voicemail.